Danny Boy

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Danny Boy

written by Frederic Weatherly
set to the traditional Irish melody of “Londonderry Air” in 1913
performed by various

Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side.
The summer’s gone, and all the roses falling,
It’s you, it’s you must go and I must bide.
But come ye back when summer’s in the meadow,
Or when the valley’s hushed and white with snow,
It’s I’ll be here in sunshine or in shadow,—
Oh, Danny boy, Oh Danny boy, I love you so!

But when ye come, and all the flowers are dying,
If I am dead, as dead I well may be,
Ye’ll come and find the place where I am lying,
And kneel and say an Avé there for me.
And I shall hear, though soft you tread above me,
And all my grave will warmer, sweeter be,
For you will bend and tell me that you love me,
And I shall sleep in peace until you come to me!

________________________

When I sat down to learn about this song, I was surprised by a few things. First, I was surprised to learn that it was written during the 20th century. I would have guessed that this went back at least to the 19th and probably 18th century. Let that be a lesson. If you set your lyrics to older music, you can trick people into giving age to your words. (This is like an adjacent and non-malicious version of attributing your own quote to someone famous to lend it weight.)

Second… more surprising still is that the guy who wrote the verses for Danny Boy was English. Is that allowed? I guess so. Is that a more common situation of which than I am aware? Perhaps. I have been led to believe that there are some hard feelings between the Irish and the English. This feels like a New York Yankees writing the well-loved song of the Boston Red So. Perhaps music can transcend some barriers.

Third, the lyrics were penned by a lawyer. Apparently his creative writing was good enough that people started calling him a lyricist in addition to a lawyer. Do you need to have your poetry set to music and for it to then become a timeless classic to obtain that “lyricist” title? Or does just writing poetry on your blog count? Asking for a friend before he updates his social media bios.

This then led me to wonder whether this song was more popular with Irish-Americans than the Irish unhyphenated. There are almost 35 million Americans who claim Irish heritage and the feeling of those folks toward the old homeland is usually sentimental and very positive. I am led to believe, by the internet, that the actual Irish do not always usually share that fond regard for their distant kin or Americans in general. So it wouldn’t be crazy if the Irish on one side of the Atlantic love Danny Boy while those on the other do not. It seems though that the song is well-liked on both sides.

Again… good music is just good music.

(for more on the song, via wiki)

“Danny Boy” is a song with lyrics written by English lawyer Frederic Weatherly in 1910, and set to the traditional Irish melody of “Londonderry Air” in 1913.

History

In 1910, in Bath, Somerset, England, the English lawyer and lyricist Frederic Weatherly initially wrote the words to “Danny Boy” to a tune other than “Londonderry Air”. One story is that his sister-in-law Margaret Enright Weatherly (AKA “Jess”) sent him a copy of “Londonderry Air” in 1913, and Weatherly modified the lyrics of “Danny Boy” to fit its rhyme and meter.^[1][2] A different story has Jess singing the air to Weatherly in 1912 with different lyrics. Yet another story is that Frederic did not set the poem to any tune, but that, in 1913, Margaret, who, with her husband Edward Weatherly, was living at the Neosho mine near Ouray, Colorado, in the US, set it to the “Londonderry Air”, which she had heard as a child in California played by her father and other Irish railway workers.

Weatherly gave the song to the vocalist Elsie Griffin, who made it one of the most popular songs of the new century. Ernestine Schumann-Heink produced the first recording of “Danny Boy” in 1915.

Jane Ross of Limavady is credited with collecting the melody of “Londonderry Air” in the mid-19th century from a musician she encountered.

Meaning

There are various conjectures about the meaning of “Danny Boy”. Some interpret the song to be a message from a parent to a son going off to war.

The 1918 version of the sheet music with Weatherly’s printed signature included alternative lyrics (“Eily Dear“), with the instructions that “when sung by a man, the words in italic should be used; the song then becomes “Eily Dear”, so that “Danny Boy” is only to be sung by a lady”. Nonetheless, it is unclear whether this was Weatherly’s intent, and it is common practice for exactly the same lyrics to be used when sung by both women and men.

In my opinion, this is simply be a song of parting – though war is certainly such an occasion.

One strong association I have always had with Danny Boy is a spoof done on Saved by the Bell. After Slater’s pet chameleon Arty died, Jessie sang a tribute.

The show aimed at splitting the difference between being funny and sweet, and I think they landed on the right spot. Unfortunately, thanks to the show, my brain has insisted on substituting Arty in place of Danny for more than thirty years now.

Here are a couple of versions of the song for your listening enjoyment: